Estimations

Hi...newbie here. Been in the business since August, so new that, also. I deal with commercial properties and landed in a rather large one to begin with - guess that's how I got my start. To get to the point: I'm doing pretty good on the business end and the maintenance end, but am blind on the estimating part. Basically, I've gone to a property and figured how long it would take a 2 man crew to do it and charged $25 per man hour i.e. 2 men @ 1 hour = $50. How off am I? I'm okay on figuring the time right, but just confused with the pricing. A little help would be wonderful. Thanks.

citic:
the 2 biggest factors into figguring in an hourly rate are:
1.) are you within the average price per hour of your area
for around here 25-45 is the norm

2.) what is you cost vs. expensis ratio
you need to take the time to figure out all the operating costs you will incure to do the job as in (fuel, payroll, insurane,workerscomp,maintence if equip,and how long it takes you to get to the job and back) it is hard to figure theese costs at first. however if you take your yearly totals divide by the number of months you work you can then divide it to the numbers of days and then again to the number of hours in a day and you will see roughly your expense of operating per hour. after that you will know how much *you* are making per hour.
i hope this helps

My friend and I when we used to work together averaged 6yards an hour and thats with some driving time inbetween.

When we did these 11yards all in the same neighborhood
8 on one street it took 3 of us 45mins to do them. Thats including edging everything in all yards, weedeating, and even using a small push mower on one yard.